Unlike ballrooms of yore, most venues these days are crowded spaces with little room to show off tango or sweeping waltz moves, according to the former Ahwatukee woman who now lives in Tempe.

You have to go with the times, and that is what this inveterate dancer, who traveled with her Chicago performing dance company, teaches her social-dance class students.

Her newest classes begin this week at Ahwatukee’s Community Center, Tempe East Jazzercise and Sun Lakes Country Club. Another 10-week course opens in early April.

“The goal of these classes is to teach people to dance in the real world as quickly as possible,” said Kaye, who “dances around” her age.

“It has nothing to do with vanity,” Kaye said. “It really has to do with perception. If your students are not sure what your age is, you get credit for what you do. I can out-dance them even if they’re in their 20s and everyone sees my passion for dance.”

Kaye admits a majority of students are older people who have discovered they now have the time to learn dancing.

“A lot of them are seniors but they’re not old seniors anymore. They want to be out having fun and dancing socially. I tell them I can dance seven straight hours, why can’t they?” she said.

Kaye started her life in dance as a teen, mastering the polka and ballroom. Her Chicago-based performing company, Vagabond Dancers, toured the Midwest and East Coast and she and husband Ed, a teacher who died in 2008, performed on Chicago television and at festivals nationwide.

A certified ballroom instructor and two-time national dance champion, Kaye said she enjoys helping students learn social dance.

“To me, dance means movement, not just a series of left-foot, right-foot patterns. And the mix for a social dancer these days is huge. It could be standards, Top 40, anything,” she said. “There’s always a new frontier and I ask myself sometimes how old will I have to be before there are no more new frontiers.”

In her newest round of classes, Kaye will introduce men-only classes, “Fearless Leaders,” enabling men to get a jump-start on leading his partner on the dance floor.

“Gentlemen are usually a little behind on learning, not because they can’t absorb the material but because they have to get to the point where they can initiate the action automatically. Ladies don’t need to develop this particular skill, they’re ready to move on to the next move. Knowing this is a standard practice, men find it more fun to hit the dance floor,” she explained.

“I must have danced a million miles in all the 30-some years I’ve been teaching,” Kaye said, estimating last year alone she taught approximately 40-70 students weekly, not including private classes or wedding couple dance instruction.

The one-hour Social Dance 101 and 102 classes, Dancing Divas and the new Fearless Leaders class are held several times a week.

For dates, times and prices for current and upcoming group and private lessons: www.LearnSocialDancing.com.

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